At the End of Time
by Rose Thorne
Summary: Hiei is discovered half-dead in the snow outside the temple by Yukina, when he should be in the Makai. What has brought him to the Ningenkai in such a condition? Takes place a few years after the end of the series.


**At the End of Time**

by Rose Thorne

Yu Yu Hakusho is the property of Yoshihiro Togashi, Studio Perriot, Shonen Jump, et al. I do not acknowledge FUNimation with anything but the destruction of the series.

--

Kurama checked Hiei's bandages, sighing. It had been eight hours since Yukina had found the fire demon unconscious and half-frozen in the snow outside the temple, grievously injured, his kokoryuha unwarded. Genkai had immediately called him, and Kurama and Yukina had done what they could for the little youkai.

Which wasn't much. Hiei's body temperature had been frightfully low when Yukina found him, and they had no idea how long he had been lying in the snow—it could have been all night, for all they knew. All they had really been able to do was heal him and try to bring his body temperature back up to a safe level. Even then, as a fire demon and thus more susceptible to cold, it was unclear how long it would take him even to regain consciousness. After eight hours wrapped in Genkai's reluctantly-offered electric blanket, Hiei's core temperature was almost to a normal level, but he was showing no sign of waking.

Meanwhile, of course, they had no idea why he was even in the Ningenkai. The last time Kurama had seen him was when he had popped in at Shiori's over eight months ago after returning a human who had wandered through the barrier. Too exhausted to go back to the Makai right away, he had stayed the night, and then left shortly after waking. Before that, they hadn't seen each other in nearly a year.

Kurama hadn't imagined that they would grow so far apart after everything they had been through, but it had happened. Things had never been the same between them since Kurama had decided to remain in the Ningenkai. He doubted Hiei had ever forgiven him.

Yukina entered the room carrying a cup of coffee, and Kurama smiled gratefully. "You're a goddess, Yukina-chan."

The Koorime smiled and sat beside him. After a moment of silence, she said, "I'm surprised he came here and not to you, Kurama-san."

"If he collapsed before getting here, he wouldn't have made it to my place. I don't think Shiori would have known what to do with him, anyway." He doubted Hiei knew that he had moved into his own apartment. "I'm surprised he didn't find Mukuro's healers. It takes energy to open a gate into the Ningenkai, even with the barrier down, and he clearly didn't have that to spare if he couldn't even make it to the temple."

"Meaning there's probably trouble in the Makai," Yuusuke said from the door.

"Yuusuke!" Kurama saw Yuusuke on a more regular basis, since his ramen shop was near his stepfather's firm and made for a nice place to have lunch.

"Baa-san said you told her not to contact me just yet, but I'm glad she did." Yuusuke leaned against the doorframe. "If there's trouble, I should be here to find out what's going on. I'm all for it if you want to keep Kuwabara out, since he's got his future to worry about here, but I'm going to end up in the Makai on a permanent basis at some point. I need to know what's going on."

Kurama closed his eyes. "Keiko's not going to be very happy if you run off to the Makai."

Yuusuke grinned. "As long as I tell her before I go, she'll be okay. I told her there might be trouble, so she's prepared."

"We don't know if it's anything, though. You could've come here for no reason." He supposed it was selfish, but he'd wanted to be the one Hiei talked to first.

"Seeing Hiei's enough of a reason. I haven't seen him in over a year. You'd think he'd bother to visit sometimes, the bastard." Yuusuke finally entered the room. "How's he doing, anyway? Genkai didn't say much."

Kurama gave up. "He nearly froze to death, but his temperature is almost back up. We're working on healing his injuries. It's just a matter of him waking up."

"Which is sure to happen if you two keep nattering on." They both jumped in surprise at Hiei's voice, soft and weak, but filled with annoyance nonetheless. The fire demon tried to sit up, but couldn't and gave up.

"Hiei-san!" Yukina's voice was filled with relief. "Stay still. You're still recovering."

"Welcome back to the world of the living," Yuusuke joked.

"Are you feeling okay?" Kurama asked.

Hiei's eyes were half-closed, and he was shivering lightly. "Still cold."

"I found you in the snow this morning," Yukina's voice caught. "I thought you were dead at first."

"You nearly were, Hiei. Your core temperature still isn't quite as high as it should be," Kurama told him. "And your youki is only returning sluggishly."

"What happened? I somehow doubt this you're visiting to catch up on old times."

Hiei closed his eyes and was silent for so long that Kurama almost thought that he'd fallen asleep when he finally spoke. "A couple months ago we stopped getting messengers from Enki. We weren't that concerned at first. Running a kingdom is obnoxious, especially in the Makai, and there were rumors that some demons were really up in arms about the whole ban on eating humans again."

Kurama shrugged. "Well, a lot of youkai are going to starve."

"There are plenty of better things to eat," Hiei retorted. "Little uprisings aren't uncommon, anyway. We sent our own messenger, but he never came back. So we sent another, with the same results. Then we tried sending one to Yomi. Same thing."

"So what happened?" Yuusuke demanded, impatient. Hiei's eyes opened, staring the half-human down. "Alright, alright. Sorry."

"Eventually we sent a military group to see what was going on. Only one came back, and he died pretty quickly afterwards. So we decided to go." Hiei closed his eyes again, his jaw tightening. "It was, obviously, a trap. I didn't see it until too late, but Mukuro did." He fell silent.

"What happened, Hiei?" Kurama asked after a few moments.

"She could've escaped. Instead she blasted me out of danger and took it head-on. She told me to run." Hiei's voice was carefully controlled.

"You were attacked?" Yuusuke was completely serious now. "By who?"

Hiei shook his head. "No idea. It was some sort of weapon, more powerful than the kokoryuha. I got caught in the shock wave, and that was bad enough. They attacked after that, but I didn't recognize them. I managed to fight them off, barely. Even if I'd made it back to the fortress…" Hiei sighed. "So I used the rest of my energy to make a gate."

"Did they follow you?" Kurama asked, tensing.

"I doubt it. I barely survived the battle, and with all the blood… Well, they probably figure I'm dead."

"And Mukuro? Hiei, what happened to Mukuro?"

A look of pain ghosted across Hiei's face before his features schooled into an emotionless mask. "She's dead. Mukuro is dead."

--

I blame Fawx, Bluegrass Elf, and Chrislea entirely for this. I shouldn't even be writing fanfiction right now even to finish my old stuff, and here I've started something new. I hate you all. And by hate I mean I love you for writing such great fanfiction and making me enjoy the YYH fandom again.

Besides, I got my revenge on Fawx. She's now a Kurama/Hiei fan. My KuraHi-fu is strong. I win!

I have a vague idea of where I'm going with this one, but I can't really spoil it. I don't know when the next chapter is coming out, but if I keep writing in my notebook at work it won't be too awful long. Keep in mind that I'm in a graduate program and I'm supposed to be writing fiction, not fanfiction.

Thanks to Chrislea for helping me think of a title. Additionally, there will be pairings in this one but I'm not announcing them just yet. Not that you can't tell.


End file.
